Short Change Heroes - Scorched Earth
by Pirate Soul
Summary: Amon's revolt continues in Scorched Earth. The Equalists were not the only plan he had created to destroy Republic City - and now, with his death/disappearance, those lost other plans are finally beginning to surface, with benders that are, for lack of a better word, impossible.


**Name: **Short Change Heroes - Scorched Earth

**Chapter Name: **The Impossible Benders

**Pairings/Characters:** N/A, pairings don't make a story. Based on the timeline location, it is currently KorraxMako, but only because this is cannon.

**Timeline Location: **This story takes place during the lapse between Season 1 and season 2, this is when the idea was hatched originally and when it was written for.

**Summary: **Amon's revolt continues in Scorched Earth. The Equalists were not the only plan he had created to destroy Republic City - and now, with his death/disappearance, those lost other plans are finally beginning to surface, with benders that are, for lack of a better word, impossible.

**Notes: **Avatar the Last Airbender's and Legend of Korra's characters and story does not belong to me, it all belongs to Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino. And Nickelodeon. I'm simply showing appreciation fo their hard work by creating this fanfic. Original characters mine.

* * *

Due to the late hour, the streets of Republic City's Dragon Flats borough were empty of people and satomobiles - even the small square where the streets converged was downright tranquil. The only immediate disruption to the landscape itself were the remaining cracks that had been created in the earth from the month's earlier arresting of non-benders, a benign reminder of tensions that had yet to completely leave the Republic's streets.

As with most openings, however, the serenity was not to last. The hum of a police airship was beginning to grow in the area. This lone airship flew in exceptionally low, barely feet above the highest roof points, intently scanning the streets below with floodlights. They were on a search.

Within that Airship's gondola, police Chief Saikhan and his lieutenant stood, looking down at the streets below. The Captain was reporting a rather grim prospect.

"No sign of them, in any of the sectors. It has been suggested they have gone underground."

"We'll be patrolling the sewers next. Please reconfirm with the other patrol's that these individual's are to be considered extremely dangerous, and that lethal force is approved if all other means have been exhausted."

"Yessir, right aw- wait, what was that?" The Captain stepped forward, leaning into the glass as close as he could without touching it. "Direct the lights starboard, rooftop level."

"Aye aye!"

"What did you see?" Saikhan joined him, staring hard at the now lighted area.

"It looked like someone running, sir." His lack of hesitation was noteworthy. Meaning, regardless of validity, the Captain had seen something.

"Deploy patrols on the rooftop." No chances could be took tonight, Saikhan acted on it.

"Yessir." Snapping to attention with a click of his heels, the Lieutenant about-faced and left the airship's control Gondola, grabbing men along the way to assist in this reconnaissance mission. They jumped off the deployment catwalks, close enough to the roofs that the use of metal-bending cords was not necessary.

The patrol moved slowly once they had landed, scanning the rooftops with their torches. Nothing seemed immediately obvious for hiding terrorists or gang members. Besides, why would their perps be on the rooftops? Seemed a little silly- CRANCHKKEEE - someone had stepped on a discarded goggled mask.

The Lieutenant moved to the officer that had done the breaking, and picked up the discarded goggle mask. There was no mistaking it. "Equalists."

"The Agni Kai have been using scavenged Equalist uniforms lately. Could be them." Suggested one of the alert cops.

"It's not them." No, the Agni Kai had a more grandiose scheme going on. With the Triple Threat's recent changes in leadership, they had territory boundaries to widen and potential gang-benders to acquire. This wasn't turf war related, anyway. "Agni-"

A tile broke on the ground off to the Patrol's left, turning their attention to some particularly deep shadows in that area. Some officer's began training the beams of their torches into the shadows; others coiled, hands raising the slightest bit, prepared to bend at a moments notice. The group began to cautiously advance in the position.

"Nine o'clock!" One of the torch bearers yelled -his light had caught a canvas clad leg - as he jumped into sumo stance, firing out his metal cables in an attempt to catch the perp. His metal cords missed, and the retailiation was a slash of fire from a chimney as a firebender jumped down from it, punching a few fireballs out before darting back into the darkness. Mucky Ice shards shot out from where he had disappeared, and from the side tiles were rippled in such a fashion that a number of police were thrown over the roof's edge. Some managed to catch themselves with their metal cords, others landed on some of the many power lines crossing the street, and others still simply hit the ground.

The fight was on. Though apparently, not from Equalists, as they didn't tend to knowingly include to benders as a core principle. Perhaps it was the Agni Kai, Saikohn had been rather vague on who their target was, he had only specified a 'danger'.

Flood lights from the airship aimed at the roof, creating a great light and even deeper shadows in areas. Some more police exited the airship, and joined the battle. From there, it was the usual spectacle when a battle between benders was on. Fancy flowing water techniques from water benders, kicking and punching based acrobatics from the firebenders, and whatever earth could be raised or flung by the earther benders from the rooftops, giving the metal bending police an advantage. The perps, however, were making a sort of point to stay in the shadows, making it impossible to count their numbers, with only the occasional pop out to redirect the police's attention.

The Lieutenant was beginning to, rather understandably, frow irritated at the cowardace of his enemy. He started to pay more attention to the patterns of the Equalist clad benders popping out, until he felt certain he could catch one of them. He was ready when the firebender popped out again, punching out fireballs at the cops rather mercilessly.

Where the cops on either side of him took the flames in their chests, he twisted his body to the side, the heat from the flames burning his skin the slightest bit from sheer proximity. He finished off his movement with a stomp, catching the perp's front foot with his metal cords, and attempting to yank him back into the lighted area. The Equalist clad-bender landed hard on his back, making it fairly easy to pull him over.

The Lieutenant side-stepped as he spied a rather obvious spout of water coming his way, shooting out his other series of cables to cut the stream. He never saw its abrupt, and downright unprecedented change in direction, slamming him over to the side of the roof, where he did a bouncing roll off the edge, barely catching himself with his cords. What style had that been? Water bending rarely took such sharp edges, that almost felt fire bender-esque. He started to pull himself up back onto the roof, barely catching some of the commotion going on with the remaining Metal-benders up there.

"Did... Did he just water-bend?!"

"That firebender just bent water!" The awe was mixed with horror. No truer abomination of bending existed.

"It's a trick, keep on the-arg!" Before the Lieutenant could return to the battle, he was thrown back by a wave of gutter water turned to ice by the unique bender, freezing him mid fling over the roof's edge, his second save from a bone breaking descent. The dual-bending man - The Lieutenant was sure it was a trick, but it sufficed as a temporary title - turned and elected to use the ice ledge he had created as a jump off point, slamming his fist downward into condensed fire bending.

o0o

The Dual-Bender's condense fire-jet was released once he was above the Airship's side. He tumbled out of the technique with a roll onto the platform encircling the ship, coming out of it in a run. The mission was on

He dug into a deep front stance at the first propeller, punching out a few solid fireballs to blow it off. One down, five more to go... He ran around the propeller's base, yet again condensing fire off to the side to keep him attached the edge.

Already the airship began to lose what little altitude it had, beginning a slow decent into the streets, hitting roofs and the like with its appendages. Seemed some of his compatriots had begun to handle the other side, perfect. The ship would be down in no time - the police seemed to feel the same way, as still on-board crew members were abandoning the failing situation. His target seemed to still be inside, that was good. It would make his life a lot easier. He flipped off the edge, slamming out some more jet fire to get him into the Gondola below.

The Dual-bender, slammed into a side window of the control Gondola, hitting one of the few operators within trying to minimize the inevitable crash's damage. He moved quickly to remove the other three operators out of the picture, before advancing on Saikhan.

Naturally, Saikhan wouldn't just give in. The Chief of Police whipped out his Metal cords, making the Dual-bender advance forward via strafing and a handspring. The bender whipped some water from a gourd on his hip, slamming it into the Cord mechanism on the Chief's back and clogging it up with ice. He finished off the situation by grabbing the Chief and slamming him into the window and kicking his feet out from under him.

"Where is it?" The Dual-Bender raised Saikhan's head.

"I don't know."

Chief Saikhan's face cracked the glass on this second slam, though it resisted being broken completely.

"Where is it?"

"I -" Saikhan's head was lifted and slammed into the glass again, making more cracks. The ground was getting closer, their precious escape time was dwindling rapidly.

"Where is it!"

"Councilman Tarrlok confiscated it upon discovery, I have no idea what he did with it." Saikhan spilled the beans rather quickly - Tarrlok was missing in action, probably dead. So the beans weren't exactly useful ones. In the light of their uselessness, the demanding bender gave the chief's head a particularly violent slam into the glass, shattering it and cutting Saikhan's face all to hell. The bender let him crumple to the gondola's floor, giving him one well placed kick to the face as farewell.

With that, through the now open window went the Bender, the airship had lost enough altitude that they were now close enough to the ground that the jump was easily and safely executed - he rolled out of it into a sprint across Dragon Flats.

A small mob of bikes wove around him in his run, the last of which he mounted thanks to a column of earth thrusting him into the air. Coupled with his own well-timed twists, his mounting was a precise endeavor only the skilled could master.

With that, they were gone from the scene, roaring into the night.

o0o

The water bending members of the police bent away the ice surrounding the Lieutenant, freeing him back onto the roof. The Airship had been caught by metal bender's cables, who had lowered it into the street without a terrible amount of collateral damage.

"It was simply a trick." The Lieutenant noted loudly to the still muttering men, shaking his wet arms out as he started down to the ground, meaning to talk with the Captain. "An impressively executed one." He shot out his cables and easily swung down, landing next to the saved Gondola crew and captain. He was certainly worse for wear. "Captain?"

"Wire the council and inform them about the events tonight." Chief Saikhan ordered over the Lieutenant as he surveyed the damage. His Lieutenant was right, dual benders didn't exist - though he was certain those were not simple tricks. And, If he were to believe they were genuine dual bending events, it left the only human had the ability to bend more than one element as suspect. The only one who could create such an elaborate hoax. "... Bring the Avatar in for questioning. Her former accomplices as well."

"Yessir, right away sir."

"Assign units around Tarrlok's former residences, and his former council office. They'll be attacking there, next." Saikhan wipe the blood away from his cheek, his face cast into a nasty scowl.

"Shouldn't we try to detain them? They're still in the city."

"You can try." Saikhan gave his consent. He doubted it would result in any sort of success capture wise - but it would keep them busy for a bit, long enough to mobilize better. "Send patrols Tarrlok's former residences. Same perpetrators, so make sure they're well equipped to deal with multiple bending types."

"On it." Another snappy, to-attention heel click, and the Lieutenant was off to act on his orders.

o0o

"Seriously, these new guys are terrible!" Bolin whined, shaking his noddle free fist to the sky in an 'Why cosmos? Why?!' fashion. "I mean, it's not like there's anyone who can compete with you and Korra as pro-benders, but I had hoped to get _competent_ benders! They're all show and no skill bro."

"Replace'em or get in the gym more." Mako shrugged, still leaning against his motorbike to eat the noodles. "The latter is better. You're the underdogs, you build it up and you could be like the mighty Turtle Ducks."

"I'd rather just have you and Korra back." Pouting, Bolin slurped up some more of the green noodles.

"You can do it, it's just gonna take time." His encouragement speech was cut off by the radio in the police radio on the bike. "_All vehicular based officers please respond. Suspects heading north from Dragon Burroughs on satobikes. Suspects are benders, reported earth, fire and water benders. Suspects considered dangerous_." Mako stood up off his bike, immediately handing off the bowl of noddles he had been munching down on to Bolin, busying his hands with proper leather cap placement and pulling down his driving goggles.

"Yikes, sounds pretty intense. Triads?"

"Doubt it, they normally announce them. Mako responding, over." After announcing his compliance into the radio's handset, Mako kicked the stand, and threw his leg over it, reveling in how good the bike felt. This was such a nice bike, Asami had really gone all out on it... He took a brief moment to glance at Bolin. "I'll see you at later. Tell Asami and Korra I'm sorry I couldn't make it."

"They'll understand... Be careful, Mako. She said they were dangerous."

"I'll be fine." Mako revved off, speeding towards the suspect's last known whereabouts - at least he knew the dispatcher would keep him up-to-date on their progress to the best of her knowledge.

Frankly, it was thanks to the said dispatcher's updates that Mako was able to cut around through shortcuts and the like to find the suspects - It took a grand total of five minutes for him to see them race past the opening of his current alley path. He raced out and turned hard behind them, now in hot pursuit. Seemed he was the only cop to have caught up with them. Weird. There were a dozen other cycle based cops, more than three times that in tactical satomobiles... so where were they?

One of the earth bending bikers created a tight pillar obstacle course for him to weave between, forcing a re-evaluation of the situation. Well, that answered an important question. He was probably the only one that had arrived and was still up and moving.

"Officer Mako in pursuit, what's the update on backup?" Mako shifted to fix the receiver in his leather cap, trying to make sure she could hear him.

"_Three cycles headed your way from the Koi Burroughs, two Satomobiles from Zuko Plaza. Where are they headed now?_"

"Not sure, slums I think." Mako reported, jerking the bike to avoid a spot of ice, countering it with a jet of fire. He revved it again, twisting the gas. Ok, Asami should have gotten him a faster bike - he was in the top gear and pushing it hard as he could, but he wasn't catching up to the assailants.

They slowed for the first turn, Mako had a decision to make. Get one, or give up. He didn't decrease any in speed, electing to instead stand up on the seat, and propel himself onto the back seat of the farthest behind turning bike. His own skidded on its side, no doubt damaged from being er, 'laid down', but overall, unharmed. He had the biker off of it in a second, and moved onto the next one. He nearly fell when the bike swerved. Oh boy it was hard to keep balance on the back of a speeding bike.

One of the perps was riding on the back as well. This one decided to join him in the rather extreme method of bike jumping and bending. They spared for a bit via fire-bending, Mako forced to parry between the agile perp and the bike's operator.

The bikes came close enough together they could almost hit, allowing their bending match to become a fist one. The active participant in the fight nailed Mako's jaw with a hook, throwing him off the bike - though not before the cop could grab his lapel and drag him down with him.

They hit the ground hard, rolling and jostling into each other as Mako refused to let go of the man's captured shirt. Their fight turned into an all out grapple, rolling around until finally, Mako was below him and fighting to get out from a choke. Mako reached, trying to grab something in a desperate attempt to save himself - and ended up getting the perp's mask. He yanked it off, hoping that might deter the perp.

He gurgled in shock at the face, recognizing the golden eyes. "Yun Wei?" He wheezed weakly, the choke starting to win out.

The bikes had apparently done a double U-turn, going past them once, and a second time. The perp was pulled up and off of Mako by a biker, and was gone in a flury of brown dreads. Mako rolled over, staring after the bikes.

"YUN WEI!" He screamed after them, though they were long gone. Could that... could that really have been who he thought it was?

* * *

A/N:

This story does contain Original Characters, again, don't hold this against me.

This is not hot off the press, but it may still contain errors - I can't seem to catch them, and I'm having a time finding a beta.

Please enjoy.

A/N End


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